NATIONAL RECAP: TOP NEWS FROM THE WEEK

E-mail adds to heat on Gonzales Just days before...

April 15, 2007

E-mail adds to heat on Gonzales

Just days before Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales is to testify before a Senate committee about the firings of eight federal prosecutors, his plight has seemingly worsened. An e-mail showed that his former chief of staff proposed replacement candidates for U.S. attorneys nearly a year before they were fired in December 2006 -- contradicting statements by department officials that no successors had been selected before the dismissals. What's next: Gonzales is to testify Tuesday before the committee -- with his job on the line.

- - -

Duke lacrosse players cleared

All charges were dropped last week against three former members of the Duke University lacrosse team who had been accused of raping a stripper at a party last year in a case that transfixed the nation. What's next: The original prosecutor in the case, Mike Nifong, faces ethics charges from the North Carolina bar.

- - -

After uproar, shock jock silenced

A week after his racist remarks about the Rutgers women's basketball team aired, radio talk show host Don Imus was out of a job. Despite repeated apologies, Imus was fired by CBS.

- - -

Controversy in diabetes study

A diabetes treatment developed by Northwestern University has sparked high hopes and deep ethical concerns: A study claimed that patients in Brazil went off insulin for at least six months after a treatment to wipe out their immune systems.